four things about me this election year
I had to stop reading Facebook and pretty much any news for a full day because I was so triggered by all the "legitimate rape" horseshit. I feel like sending the Republican National Committee my therapy bill for the week.
Group of people I am personally most frightened of in the US: Republican primary voters. They are the ones who have systematically tossed out almost every R with a lick of sense and put in their place people like Todd Akin, who believes in magic rape-detecting vagina juices and whom the other fuckwits they elected nonetheless chose to put on the Science and Technology Committee, and Steve King, who just described all the multicultural groups at the flagship public university in his state as, "people who feel sorry for themselves."
I really feel like posting on Facebook something like, "If you are willing to put these anti-birth control, anti-abortion, anti-health care, anti-poor, anti-gay, anti-immigrant, racist, anti-government, magical-thinking, radical right-wing religious fanatics in office just so you don't have to pay taxes, get the fuck away from me. I think you are cruel, self-centered, and a bad person, and I don't want to talk to you ever again. You want a libertarian paradise? Move to Somalia. They have very few laws there. You know what else they don't have? Accessible health care, reliable roads, effective public schools. You know what they do have? Pirates, cholera, and a staggering amount of preventable human suffering. Have fun with that. Also, you know where they learned how to organize a country based on a system run by wealthy elites on the backs of huge swaths of grindingly poor people? White colonizers. So take your racism and shove it right up your ass. Or, you know, die in a fire. That works, too."
One of the nice things about being rich is being able to put resources toward things I think need doing. My partner suggested a few weeks ago that we spend a non-trivial amount of money on political contributions; I enthusiastically agreed, because there are a lot of state legislative races in which $1,000 can literally make the difference between a good candidate winning and a total fuckwit winning. Last night we had a lovely evening with some friends who are political professionals, eating Taiwanese food and talking through some candidate profiles so we can decide on the most effective places to spend our money. I have a wee twinge of discomfort about this for ethical reasons. The fact that we have money should not allow us to exert disproportionate influence on the political process. But in a post-Citizens United USA where the Koch brothers have fairly effectively purchased themselves most of the US Congress, I guess you gotta fight fire with fire.
Group of people I am personally most frightened of in the US: Republican primary voters. They are the ones who have systematically tossed out almost every R with a lick of sense and put in their place people like Todd Akin, who believes in magic rape-detecting vagina juices and whom the other fuckwits they elected nonetheless chose to put on the Science and Technology Committee, and Steve King, who just described all the multicultural groups at the flagship public university in his state as, "people who feel sorry for themselves."
I really feel like posting on Facebook something like, "If you are willing to put these anti-birth control, anti-abortion, anti-health care, anti-poor, anti-gay, anti-immigrant, racist, anti-government, magical-thinking, radical right-wing religious fanatics in office just so you don't have to pay taxes, get the fuck away from me. I think you are cruel, self-centered, and a bad person, and I don't want to talk to you ever again. You want a libertarian paradise? Move to Somalia. They have very few laws there. You know what else they don't have? Accessible health care, reliable roads, effective public schools. You know what they do have? Pirates, cholera, and a staggering amount of preventable human suffering. Have fun with that. Also, you know where they learned how to organize a country based on a system run by wealthy elites on the backs of huge swaths of grindingly poor people? White colonizers. So take your racism and shove it right up your ass. Or, you know, die in a fire. That works, too."
One of the nice things about being rich is being able to put resources toward things I think need doing. My partner suggested a few weeks ago that we spend a non-trivial amount of money on political contributions; I enthusiastically agreed, because there are a lot of state legislative races in which $1,000 can literally make the difference between a good candidate winning and a total fuckwit winning. Last night we had a lovely evening with some friends who are political professionals, eating Taiwanese food and talking through some candidate profiles so we can decide on the most effective places to spend our money. I have a wee twinge of discomfort about this for ethical reasons. The fact that we have money should not allow us to exert disproportionate influence on the political process. But in a post-Citizens United USA where the Koch brothers have fairly effectively purchased themselves most of the US Congress, I guess you gotta fight fire with fire.